Financial institutions in the United States are no strangers to privacy regulations, particularly given the obligations imposed by the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and the California Financial Information Privacy Act (“SB1”). More recently, financial institutions have been focused on whether and/or the extent to which the EU’s GDPR may apply to their U.S. operations. Many financial institutions,… Read More

The 2018 Winter Olympics are over. We watched two 17-year-olds win gold medals in sports that didn’t exist when we were 17. The Garlic Girls, with nicknames from their favorite breakfasts, and the U.S. men’s team won medals in curling. No Miracle on Ice for the U.S. men’s hockey team, but the U.S. women’s team… Read More

The holidays came early for the financial services industry. First, the Senate voted to repeal the CFPB’s rule banning class waivers in arbitration agreements in consumer financial contracts. Then, Richard Cordray stepped down as CFPB Director. Former Director Cordray’s attempt to name his interim successor hours before submitting his formal resignation created dueling interim directors… Read More

On October 18, the CFPB released a set of guiding principles for participants in the financial data sharing and aggregation industry. The publication of the consumer protection principles follows a November 2016 Request for Information in which the CFPB asked stakeholders in the data sharing and aggregation market to comment on consumer benefits and risks associated… Read More

The massive Equifax breach continues to prompt responses from a wide-range of regulators. While this is not surprising in light of the scale and nature of the incident, a number of regulators are taking more aggressive and more public actions in just a short time following public announcement of the breach. While there is a… Read More

On September 6, 2017, the CFPB announced that it has taken action against an online lead aggregator. The allegations revolved around the company’s selling personal information of consumers who were interested in small-dollar or installment loans to online lenders. It was alleged that the loans ultimately offered to consumers were, or were likely to be, void… Read More

Through hurricanes, wild fires, the publication of Hillary Clinton’s book, the birth of Amal and George Clooney’s twins, and the Dodgers’ historic losing streak, Director Richard Cordray and the CFPB’s Final Arbitration Rule are still standing. As my colleague Ollie Ireland explained, these days, it’s easier to predict the weather than it is to predict… Read More

Summer blockbuster season is officially upon us. Have you seen Wonder Woman yet? What about Guardians of the Galaxy Part 2? It’s déjà vu all over again with Baywatch, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Transformers, Cars, Spider Man, and more Inconvenient Truths from Al Gore all coming to a theatre near… Read More

In like a lion, out like a lamb—it works for weather; does it work for new administrations? We’ll have to wait and see. We’ll have to wait and see about the length of CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s tenure and the fate of Dodd-Frank, as it appears the Trump administration is focusing on other priorities. So… Read More

On February 16, 2017, the CFPB issued a Request for Information regarding use of alternative data and modeling techniques in the consumer lending “credit process.” The CFPB defines the “credit process” broadly as all processes and decisions made by a creditor during the full life cycle of the credit product, including marketing, pre-screening, fraud prevention,… Read More

On December 28, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) released a significantly revised version of its controversial, proposed cybersecurity rules, initially proposed in September of last year. As we noted in our Client Alert at that time, the rules as originally proposed would have created one of the most comprehensive and… Read More

Hope you survived all of those awkward Thanksgiving holiday conversations—amazing how divided people are on whether the court got it right in the PHH case, isn’t it? So on we go into the holiday season, while visions of Dodd-Frank repeal dance in our heads. No long winter’s nap for the CFPB, not with the inauguration… Read More

On November 17, 2016, the CFPB held a field hearing in Salt Lake City, Utah, and published a Request for Information (“RFI”) regarding access to consumer financial account data. Through the RFI, the CFPB is seeking information regarding consumers’ ability to access, control and share personal financial data relating to them in a usable electronic… Read More

On October 19, 2016, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board and the OCC (collectively, the Agencies) released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) laying out a framework for enhanced cyber risk management standards that the Agencies are considering requiring of certain “large and interconnected” financial institutions. The Agencies have not yet proposed… Read More

On September 13, 2016, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) proposed cybersecurity rules that, if finalized in their current form, would create one of the most comprehensive, detailed and onerous cybersecurity standards in the country. While the proposed rules would apply only to financial institutions subject to the NYDFS’s authority under New… Read More

So much for summer! The weather is cooling, the kids are back to school, and we better not see you wearing white so long after Labor Day! For those of you having a little trouble getting back in the swing of things, we thought we’d lead with just a few of the animals making headlines… Read More

Why another law firm newsletter? Over ten years ago, Will Stern answered that question in the first Editor’s Note of the first Financial Services Report. Some things have changed since then—we no longer print and mail paper copies, and we report on issues that were not even a twinkle in anyone’s eye back then (the… Read More

On March 2, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) broke new ground (at least for the CFPB) when it released a consent order against Dwolla, Inc., an online payment platform, regarding data security. While in many respects the data security “message” sent by the CFPB is not a new one (e.g., companies must live up to… Read More

In December 2009, Morrison & Foerster published the client alert “Federal Agencies Issue Model GLBA Privacy Form.” The federal banking agencies and the CFTC, FTC, NCUA and SEC (“Agencies”) have issued a final rule amending their privacy rules under Title V of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”). The purpose of the amendments is to provide a… Read More

The FTC rang in the New Year with a report, Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion? Understanding the Issues. The report wrestles with the implications of using big data analytics to target and make decisions about customers. Some of the FTC’s observations are common sense, but others require more careful analysis. For example,… Read More

We are a full service newsletter, so we offer these can’t-miss Christmas gift ideas for the hard-to-please. Hoverboards are the “It” gift this season, but what about all the poor souls who don’t own one? We’ve devised a remote that lets you seize control from a distance and slam the thing in reverse, toggle forward,… Read More

On December 1, 2015, House and Senate conferees reached a deal on a long-term highway bill, the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act” (H.R. 22). While the bill’s more than 1,300 pages are largely focused on highway, transportation, and safety issues, the bill includes amendments to two federal financial privacy laws, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (“GLBA”) and… Read More

On November 9, 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”) sent a letter to a number of state and federal financial regulators signaling that DFS may issue comprehensive cybersecurity regulations for financial institutions subject to DFS’s authority. The stated purpose of the letter was to “spark additional dialogue, collaboration and, ultimately, regulatory… Read More

The kids may be back in school, but it was the adults who got smarter. North Korea moved to its own time zone, so now it lags only a half hour behind everyone else. Think about it. Show up late for work but still be on time. Know that the bartender really doesn’t mean it… Read More

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